Unreal Engine Interiors

Course overview and a time-lapse of the SketchUp modelling process for Tadao Ando's New York apartment. The clinical, minimal interior keeps complexity low so you can focus on learning Unreal Engine. Key modelling practices include grouping geometry tightly and assigning block colours that swap easily for UE materials.

Export from SketchUp via the Datasmith plugin, breaking the model into chunks—kitchen, furniture, shell—so Unreal Engine runs more smoothly. Import into UE5 using the architecture blank template, set up folder structures for levels and data, and avoid the painful shader compilation wait by letting it run on first launch.

Add a directional light as the sun and explore mobility modes—static, stationary, and movable. For archviz, everything stays movable so you get real-time Lumen feedback as you adjust. The immediate visual response when tweaking light direction and intensity is why Unreal Engine works so well for interior visualisation.

The post-process volume controls global illumination, reflections, colour grading, shadows—virtually everything you see. Tick infinite extent so it affects the whole scene. Use it to kill auto-exposure and lens flare, then dial in the look you want. Different volumes can create exposure transitions between interior and exterior.

Quixel Bridge gives you a massive material library built into UE5. Head to Collections > Arc Vis > Surface and apply brushed steel to the kitchen, concrete to walls, and timber to floors. The block colours from SketchUp make swapping materials straightforward—each colour becomes a separate material slot.

When Quixel doesn't have what you need—like the specific Danish oak floor from the reference images—you build materials from scratch. Source textures from Poliigon or similar, import albedo and normal maps, and wire them into a material graph. The floor ties the whole interior together, so it's worth getting right.

The Epic Marketplace has nearly 800 archviz packs—furniture, plants, accessories. Some are free courtesy of Quixel, others cost money. Buy a scene pack, open it as a separate project, then migrate individual assets into your working file. Higher quality furniture makes a noticeable difference in final renders.

Set up cameras to match five shots from the original Residence 3E photography—including a vertical composition with strong depth of field. More marketplace assets get migrated in to populate the shots. Camera placement and focal length control how the space reads; depth of field draws the eye where you want it.

Add an HDRI backdrop from Poly Haven to create a believable view outside the windows. The Path Tracer—Unreal's built-in renderer comparable to V-Ray and Corona—produces photorealistic stills. Set the HDRI low enough to feel elevated, rotate it for the best reflection angles, and render at 4K or higher.

Animate cameras for walkthrough videos using both Path Tracer and ray-traced workflows. Path Tracer gives cleaner results but takes longer; Lumen ray tracing renders faster for previews. The animation tools work like keyframing in any video software—set start and end positions, adjust easing, and export.